The Long Second Life of Autumn Collins
by zombiebunnie96
Summary: Autumn Collins is a girl who has a lot of personal struggles, regardless of her good home life. One night, Riley finds her, and the rest is history. (Trigger Warning: mentions of ED's) (THIS IS A PRODUCT OF ME BEING BORED, LET ME KNOW IF YOU LIKE IT!)


_**(Author's note: this story may contain the following triggering themes, which will be mentioned at the beginning of each chapter. The main triggering theme currently is anorexia / eating disorders. Yes, I know very well that eating disorders and self injury are very rarely to gain attention, however, sometimes, that can be the cause.**_

 _ **Also, this story will take place in Eclipse and on.)**_

(THIRD PERSON POV)

A anorexic pyromaniac; two words that would rarely be used in conjunction with one another.

But such was life for Autumn, especially when everything else was the norm.

Her parents gave her one of the more 'subtle' flower-child names, having been in their twenties during the good 'ol sixties and seventies. They'd taken full advantage of the free thinking and paisley clothing. As always, though, people change as they get older. Michael and Diane had become full-conservative, well-off parents by their mid-forties, not before having two children in the nineties; Mark, her brother, and three years later, Autumn Rose Collins herself. The siblings couldn't be any more different. From the outside eye, it would be hard to believe that they'd come from the same two parents.

Mark and Autumn were alike as children; playing in the fall leaves and winter snow together, both doing very well, praised by their teachers, up until middle school. Teenage years came. The siblings grew apart. Michael and Diane's shared legal firm grew exponentially. Collins & Collins became a well known name.

While Mark continued to excel in school, never getting any grade lower than a B- on anything, earning honor roll every year. He graduated at eighteen, a thick stack of college acceptance letters, and choosing law school, just like his father. He and Autumn rarely spoke or spent time together, so his leaving the next year was not much of an upset to her; just an empty seat at the dinner table.

Autumn was sixteen then, in her sophomore year in a Seattle, Wasington high school. She had everything she could want or need thanks to her parents' income; a laptop for school, high-end clothes, her big candle collection (always leaving her room smelling like a Yankee Candle shop). She loved the fire from the candles, not just the scent they gave off (her favorite being apple pumpkin). She had weekly bonfires in their yard, the family's chocolate lab, Benji planting himself next to her, far enough away from the small fire, chewing on one of his toys. The fire calmed her, the licking flames trying to leap to the sky.

Autumn reached the 'teenage rebellion' stage in the end of that year, her parents going gray at all of the failing grades, detentions, and defiance.

Diane would tell her to be home by nine at night, her voice straining. Autumn would chirp a "sure," dancing out the door to go meet friends at the local park. She would usually return at eleven, igniting an argument between the three, which would end with the parents turning their argument on each other, Autumn running to her room, light on the balls of her feet, until near her door. _Stomp, stomp, stomp, SLAM._

Autumn's defiance had a reason- it gained Diane and Michael's attention, demanded it. With her brother doing so great and stress from their law firm beginning to crumble, her parents rarely cast an eye in her direction. As a former 'daddy's girl', this devastated her. So, she acted out.

Skipping school, earning detentions, and breaking curfew were not enough to gain their attention.. She learned a new tactic at lunch one day.

"Yeah, she like, stopped eating or something, and now she's going to the hospital. Her parent's are losing their minds. It's pretty sad," Autumn's friend Amanda rambled about a classmate, chewing on a french fry.

That was all Autumn needed to hear. Just eat a little less and lose a few pounds and her parents would speak to her more.

Her idea very quickly became an addiction. Food was no longer food, but rather numbers. Calories. Sugar content. Workouts on Diane's stair-stepper every night became routine.

Her plan had worked, but now, she couldn't stop. Autumn quickly became underweight, and was immediately assigned counselling sessions and given antidepressants, which did nothing to help. However, she 'recovered'. Chugging water before weigh-ins, sewing nickles and small weights into the pockets of her jeans, etc. Her parents believed her.

It was the summer before her junior year, only a few short weeks before her seventeenth birthday. She was having another one of her small bonfires, gazing into the flames as the sun had finally sat. It was a warm, quiet evening in the Seattle suburbs. The crackling of the firewood and scent of the smoke kept her calm and relaxed. (Yes, Autumn has a candle in that scent, too. How could she not?)

As her blue eyes briefly flitted closed, the warm summer breeze blew her chest-length, wavy, light brown hair softly. A sigh escaped her lips, and she suddenly felt cold hands on her frail shoulders. Or at least, she thought she did. She got the familiar cold-buzzing feeling in her head, her skin growing sweaty, yet chilled. She knew the feeling; passing out from not eating enough. She'd done it enough times, usually in the shower. She could have sworn she'd heard a voice as everything went black, and the last thing she remembered was the feeling of falling.

Autumn awoke somewhere in the woods, god knows what time, or where. There were no trails near her, just lush forest. Big, blue eyes stared up to see an angelic, young looking boy, about her age.. with bright red eyes. She almost screamed, but she felt too weak (and afraid) to move or make a sound.

"Why did you take me? Who are you?" Autumn hoarsely whispered. She shook with fright as the boy knelt down to her level, his perfect, smooth pale skin almost glimmering in the moonlight.

"My name is Riley, and yours?" He spoke with no emotion, ignoring her question.

"Autumn..?" She was breathless, frozen in fear.

Everything after that moved much too quickly for her human eyes to follow. All she could remember was pain. A sharp, shooting, burning pain in her arms, which moved to radiate over her entire body.

She couldn't hold back the screams, then.

(Autumn's POV)

Am I dying? Am I finally dying? I hoped so. I begged so. Fire was suddenly my enemy- was I tossed into one? I couldn't open my eyes. The white-hot, searing burn raked my skin. I tried to scream, to beg someone to come either put me out or kill me, but I couldn't feel my face. I couldn't feel any of my body- I couldn't sense that it was there. Am I dead? Am I in hell? My mind was devoid of rational thought, only able to focus on the fire.

After what had to have been weeks in agony, begging whatever God existed to end my life, I could feel my toes. The cold, chilled air was a blessing, release from the fire. It seemed that the fire receded inwards- away from my fingertips and feet, to my shoulders and knees, and into my chest. As it receded from my limbs and head, it grew in my chest. Was I finally so burnt that the fire was vanishing? I felt my heart pounding in my chest, faster and heavier, as if fighting to keep my body alive. With the majority of the pain gone, I was unsure if I wanted it to win or not.

Then suddenly, it stopped.

The burning. The heart beating. I could feel my body again. I could hear- I could hear _everything._ The birds and squirrels running about the forest, the soft whoosh of the gentle breeze, the sound of fabric brushing against itself- someone walking close to me.

Something in my chest grew, a heavy, snarling sound. My eyes were open before I knew it, and I was flinging myself back against a tree, in some crouched position, before my mind could register. I was angry, confused.. defensive? As my eyes met his, I remembered who he was.

 _"My name is Riley, and yours?"_

I peered into his red eyes, my eyes scanning so much more than they could have before. I could see every facet of crimson in his irises, every leaf on a tree hundreds of yards away. I could _smell_ him, too. He smelled sweet, invitingly, almost sickeningly so. The sweetness had a tinge of peppermint, maybe flowers? I could also smell the forest around me- the deep woodiness of the trees, dirt and lush grass, and the woodland animals; squirrels, deer. I could feel the fire seem to return, only controlled, in the pit of my throat. It ached, rather than sharp burning.

"Water-" my lips moved before I thought the words.. but that couldn't be my voice, could it? No. No voice was that sweet, that angelic. Only Riley's. I gasped, my chest feeling.. strange. I hadn't noticed that I wasn't breathing. Am I going into shock?

All of this happened in a matter of three seconds since I'd woken up. I straightened myself out against the tree behind me, moving faster than I had previously thought possible. My eyes remained on Riley, as he began taking steps toward me.

"Water isn't what you need." He stated plainly, as if it were fact. But I did. I had been burned alive- my eyes checked my body, still intact. Not burned, not charred, not damaged. In fact, it looked better, stronger than it ever had. My skin had lost all pink tones, now only a pale white marble. I felt stronger, too. I no longer felt the buzzing high of hunger. My hip bones no longer poked out unnaturally, my knees no longer knobby and smaller than the rest of my leg.

"What did you do to me?" I heard the voice escape my lips again. Something had changed. I wasn't really burned. My mind began racing with questions, but if felt as if my mind had a lot more space for these thoughts, more space for more knowledge. I felt like a whole new person.

"I made you stronger, Autumn. I made you a fighter."

"What?" I was so confused. What would I be fighting? Was he going to fight me? "What are you talking about? Where am I? What-"

My eyes somehow managed to keep up as Riley moved much faster than any human creature should, his hand reaching in front of him and onto my throat, slamming me against the tree.

"You're a vampire now," I wanted to scoff in any other situation, but shoved up against a tree with someone snarling in my face was not the time. Vampires don't exi-

"You will fight for Victoria and I. You will fight for our army. If you disagree, you will be destroyed, understand?" His eyes bored into mine, frighteningly.

All I could do was nod a tiny bit. His hand released me, and I landed on my feet, catching myself before I could fall onto the ground.

"Why-" I wanted to cough, but didn't. "Who am I fighting? Why am I fighting them?" I didn't want to die. I had to go along with this evil person's plan. My mind normally would have been spinning at the information I was learning, but it was coping rather well. My emotions, however, were a different story. Confusion, fear, worry, concern, anger, panic. It swirled around in my chest.

"You'll learn soon enough."

"Am I really a vampire?" I spoke breathlessly. He nodded, as if answering a simple, normal question.

"Yeah. So are the others."

At that my hands shot up to my throat. Some new smell had penetrated the area- something as alluring as steak and lobster, my favorite meal as a kid. The memory seemed muddy now, murky through my 'human' eyes. My twelfth birthday, my parents and I out at dinner, and ordering my favorite food. My eyes were wide as Riley called someone over, and the smell got stronger. I wanted to ask what it was, and why it had made my throat go up in flames. It felt as if I'd swallowed red-hot coals. And then someone, another guy, dropped the squirming thirty-something year old man in front of me. He had been cut, right on his shoulder. I could see so well, I could see every thinning hair on his head, every pore in his face, the blood rushing to just under his skin, in fear. But instead, my eyes focused on the bleeding wound. I instantly lost control of my body, as my legs plunged me forward, my jaw clamping over his neck, where the biggest artery bulged.

When I was able to regain my composure (and begin to panic at the sight of my arms and face covered in blood, one of the other 'members' of the 'army' helped me wash it off), I was able to speak to Riley again. I was doing oddly well at keeping calm and not hyperventilating on the ground at everything going on.

"You were going to die," he sighed, sounding bored.

"So you made me un-dead?" I tried to laugh, but it came out weird. He just looked strangely at me.

"Your heart failed. It stopped beating just before I bit you. You're lucky to be al.. here."

He didn't want to say alive, because I'm not alive, not anymore. I'm not dead, either. I'm still walking, talking, and drinking blood, apparently. I didn't like the idea of innocent people dying, but I couldn't think of any other way to keep the burning out of my throat. I began to wonder about my family, as I was introduced to the others. They all told me that it was the same for them; they were turned, woke up, freaked out, fed, and met the others. I never got to meet Victoria, but they told me that I didn't want to. She wasn't a nice person.

We were standing around and talking, myself and a few of the others. I met another quiet girl who didn't quite fit in. She said they, we were going to attack soon. Who are we attacking? The yellow-eyes. Apparently, they're bad vampires. I may have still been numb to the situation, as I sort of just took everything in with a nod.

I missed my parents, though. And my dog. And Mark. I missed my candle collection and my friends at school, but I could never go back. I bet that, by now, mom is filing a police report and they're blaming each other. That didn't bother me. However, the passing thought of Benji whimpering outside of my bedroom door did. Could a vampire have a dog? I doubt it. Would I want to eat him, too? Probably. I sighed sadly, getting the attention of the others.

"Thinking of your family? Friends?" one guy asked.

"Yeah." I nodded.

"We all do but, you have to just get over it." I narrowed my eyes at the guy. He was around the same age as me, and I knew it was his job to keep the 'newborn' vampires under control. I wanted to argue, but it wasn't worth it. He and Bree had been acting strange lately, I think they may like each other, but I didn't want to bother with their business.

I wanted out of this 'coven'. I didn't want to fight against people I didn't even know. But, how would I survive? The sunlight would burn me alive, and there was no way in hell I wanted to be burned ever again.

"Hey, do you care if I go for a walk? I need to clear my mind," I asked Diego. He shrugged.

"Sure. Just don't run off. I'm trusting you, kid." I nodded, turning on my heel and walking into the deeper woods, walking until I could just barely hear their voices. I plopped onto the ground, sitting cross-legged with my back against a tree. I leaned my head back against the rough bark, closing my eyes with a sigh.

I hope they're not too worried about me. They never paid much attention to me before, but.. they're still my parents. I bet Mark's worried. I wish I'd have remained close with him before he left for college. We used to be best friends. What the hell happened? I miss Benji, my big tank of a dog. I bet my friends are all over the internet about me being gone. I rolled my eyes and laughed softly at the idea of my one friend, Sofia, 'blogging' about me being missing.

I began thinking about where I am now.

In an army. What am I fighting for? I don't even _know_ these yellow-eyes. Why are we even fighting them? Nobody seemed to know exactly why, except for Riley. I stood and stretched, expecting cracks and pops, as my body felt achey and weak, but none came. Oh, right. Vampire. I made my way back to the temporary camp, back to my small friend group of Bree, Diego, and Freaky Fred. Why is he freaky? He's gifted. He can make a repulsing shield. It's pretty cool. He's a few years older than me, but he was a really kind guy. It was almost time for the group to hunt, and I went with, of course. Another innocent life lost.. At least I was finally getting more clean with my hunting. No blood splattered all over my face and arms. When we returned, I'd noticed that Bree and Diego weren't there. I stood with Fred.

"Where d'ya think they're at?"

"Probably making out somewhere," Fred chuckled.

"Yeah," I sighed. "Probably."

While they were gone, I spend more time to myself in the forest. My emotions were finally starting to really hit me. I wasn't sad though, I was angry. My vision tinged with red, and I was glad that nobody was nearby to hear my tantrum. I punched trees, mumbling, _why me? Why did they have to pick me? I don't want this! I want my family!_ I would have angrily cried, but we can't cry, either. The thought only made me more angry. I felt something, almost as if my heart was pumping again, but not blood. It radiated from my chest, out to my hands. When my fist landed on the dent I'd made in the tree, there was something different. Something that made me freeze, knuckles still against splintered wood.

The splinters were on _fire_. My hand was on _fire_. But it didn't burn. If anything, it felt like soft, warm pins-and-needles. If anything, it felt natural.

How in the hell is burning hands natural?

I pulled my hand back and held both hands in front of me. Both were on fire. Transparent, red-orange flames licked into the sky from my fingertips. As I calmed myself down, the fire died down, too. When I was completely calm, it was gone, my hands unscathed.

Well, I sure do have a _fiery_ temper.

I laughed at myself, almost hysteric. I surely could have been losing my mind. A vampire. In a vampire war. With hands that catch fire. I decided I wanted to test my little peculiarity and push it farther if I could. Hell, if I need to go into a battle, maybe I should be better equipped?

Without angering myself, I focused on bringing that feeling back. The feeling of warm icicles moving from my head to my chest, and my chest to my hands. I kept my palm pointed at my victim, the poor, abused tree. I pushed my hair back- wouldn't want it to catch fire, if it even could. I followed the feeling down my arm, past my elbow, and to my hand.

It was like a flamethrower, tiny flames shooting from my fingertips and bigger ones from my palm. I felt like the Spiderman of fire. I laughed aloud, lifting my other hand, doing the same with it.

When I was finally done messing with my fireyness, so to speak, I made my way back to the camp. I would keep this secret, and I could use it to leave. They won't be able to win in a fight against a girl who can catch fire, will they?

Bree came back in the morning, seeming upset and confused. Diego wasn't anywhere to be seen, but Riley'd said he went off on a mission with _her_.

Fred tried convincing Bree to leave with him, but she was committed to wait and go, because Diego would be there. That's when I turned to Fred.

"You're looking for people to leave with you?" I asked excitedly. He seemed confused, but probably excited himself, to be out on our own. Only, I had different plans for after we got away. If these yellow-eyes survived, I wanted to learn more about them. I wanted to be able to judge for myself if they truly were evil. Then I would travel. Maybe settle down somewhere out east, by the beach.

So, it was set. I would leave with Fred. We would wait for Diego and Bree in Vanvouver, then we would go our separate ways.

When none of the others were paying enough attention, especially Riley, we left. Fred had become a good friend to me, and I was one to him. I didn't have any romantic interests right then, though, as my main focus was meeting those yellow-eyes.

 **(Let me know if I should write more! This was mainly a product of my boredom.)**


End file.
